Bergen the debrief

Well, where to begin??

Bergen is not new to me, but it is a city that always shows me something new. I have favourite places, Mt Floyen being the main one.

This is a must visit, and costs approx £14 for a return trip on the funicular, at the top apart from amazing views, there is a coffee shop, a restaurant, a children's play area, goats , yes goats, lots of woodland and a lake, you can go canoeing here too.

The Bryggen, which has Unesco World Heritage status, faces on to the harbour , and is mostly filled with shops and restaurants, wander up the alleys and take in the buildings, when you get right to the back you realise how 'deep' the buildings go, and are all built from wood and most built ON wood.

The public park with its central fountain and statue of Edvard Greig, one of its famous sons, is worth a wander, with a stunning bandstand and at this time of year a beautiful walkway of bare pollarded trees.

You can visit Troldhaugens Venner where Greig lived and composed. I visited here 21 years ago and remember it well.

The Sailors monument is worth a visit and is 3 mins walk from The Bryggen. It is dedicated to the men and woman who have worked and lost their lives to the sea, whether whalers, seamen or fishermen.

The Cathedral, Domkirken , is not as grand as some cathedrals but has that typical 'scandi' downplay on 'fru fru', It is still a beautiful place to visit.

The seawater swimming pool,  its next to the Aquarium and worth a visit, however it is also massively popular and usually half of Bergen are in there too.

Things to know in Norway.

It rains a lot, over two hundred and thirty days a year, so prepare for this. This is due to the gulf stream and the mountains, I'm not an expert but these are the reasons.

It has the oldest primary school in Norway, Christi Krybbe School, it was founded in 1737, originally a school for the poor.

You cannot purchase alcohol in shops on Sundays.

Firstly you cannot buy wine or spirits or anything with an alcohol content higher than  4.7%  in a supermarket . There are specific shops for this ( Vinmolopolet) and they have very strict hours usually closing at 6pm weekdays days, 3pm on Saturdays and not opening on Sundays.

You can buy beer and cider in the supermarkets, this is usually  until 8pm on weekdays and 6pm on Saturday.

You cannot drink in public places and this includes a hotel balcony.

Everywhere likes card payments, but do take cash, money is still money however its format.

Bring a water bottle in your suitcase as water is safe to drink from the taps and far superior to that in the UK. Bottled water is expensive, why have bottled when you can just turn on the tap.

Shopping is still quite spendy, as is eating and drinking, my glasses of champagne of the Fjord boat cost £26 each. 

My meal of 'rudolf ' cost nearly £50, but there are cheaper alternatives, as I have to be careful with what I eat, a lot of pizza places were ignored and also beautiful open sandwiches which were heavy on mayo etc. as well as an abundance of pastries. I did buy sushi from the fish market which was exceptional. it was approx £15 for six pieces.

What I did notice in the supermarkets is that some food prices were on a par with the UK, ready made salad bowls and sandwiches were close to UK prices which is a bit scary. If you need paracetamol or Ibuprofen in Norway you pay at the supermarket  till and then have them 'dispensed' at a machine on the way out, note to anyone coming, bring a supply with, paracetamol and ibuprofen are nearly £5 a pack.

Something else that shocked me was the amount of people who smoked and also the lack of vapes, not walking through someones sweet sickly carcinogenic exhalation was great, walking though cigerette smoke again was awful.

One in five people in Norway own a boat and getting around by boat is often quicker and cheaper than driving. This accounts for people mooring their boats at the offices at the harbour.

Norway is very quickly turning to electric cars, as I found in Stavanger a couple of years ago and my various  near death experiences.

All the main touristy sites in Bergen are easily walkable and I also added the hop on hop off bus which gives you a good view and run down on Bergen history, who knew the British brought the Black Death  to Bergen in August 1349, by Autumn that year it had spread to Tromso up in the north.

Bloody Brits on holiday!!!!

The Flam railway and Fjord trip was part of my holiday package and was great but a very long day, nearly thirteen hours.

I stayed in Hotel Heiman which is the oldest Hotel in Bergen, it had everything that I needed and the staff were very helpful, breakfast was amazing and the rooms were warm and you could get 'Midsomer murders' on BBC world, hell, what more do you want on holiday.

As you have probably gathered, I do love Norway, I know its costly but it is also beautiful, a really natural beauty that takes your breath away. There is something different round every corner.

I will be back that is for sure, maybe Oslo, but most likely Stavanger or Bergen.

If you are wondering about the glasses of champagne quaffed on this holiday and yes it was REAL champagne none of your cheap Italian muck, well, this will be my last holiday for the foreseeable time, until I have my gallbladder removed and recover, so I just thought Id make the most of  it. Please note I also consumed a very large amount of Norwegian water to try to balance it out.

And so ends my Norwegian adventure.........until next time.

Last day and last holiday for a while

 My final day in Bergen dawned, and what a morning, stunning blue skies and sunshine, ooohh the irony!!!!!!

I decided to do some last minute shopping and ended up getting lost in Norwegian architecture.

There is something about the varying styles of houses, some just two story, some four+ story, wooden clad or in some areas of the city 'chimney houses. These were built after it was decided that timber houses were a serious fire risks (obviously). However some naughty folk, built timber houses and then clad them in thin bricks, hence if there was a fire in the house, the building turned into a 'chimney' due to the brickwork.

I picked up a traditional Norwegian Easter egg, which is not chocolate but cardboard, and you fill with special easter sweeties. Lots of squishy sweets, some mini chocolate bunnies, and chicks. Not a chocolate egg in sight, very refreshing.

Also  at Easter (or Paske) they do love a bit of yellow and green, homes are decorated with birch twigs festooned with decorative eggs.  Yellow candles are everywhere in the shops, yellow decorations fill every shop window. Very bright and spring like.

I also found , a little late, a lovely shop with glass decorations, luckily it was closed.

Then by the time I got back to my hotel, it was time to board the coach back to the airport. 

And then time to fly home

And that should have been it, but typical Lainey style our landing at Newcastle was probably the scariest I've had in a very long time.

Coming in just before the coast, the plane was bouncing around like a ball, as we were approaching the airport it was getting worse, I could see the ground was pretty close, hurrah I thought. and then we hit the runway and started seriously swerving off to the right. You could have heard a pin drop in the cabin and even the attendants in their seats went silent (they normally chatter away like mad to each other).

We pulled back onto the runway and continued to the concourse. Now I normally wait until everyone has got off to move, but believe me I was off that plane in record time!!!!!

I headed off to meet my friend Julie for a quick cuppa and a catch up, before driving home.

I'm spending the remainder of this week taking it easy, as on Thursday evening I had a horrible gallbladder attack, which was the main reason why I went back to bed on Friday morning. luckily I now carry a pharmacy around with me, 'just in case'. 

And now time to get ready to head back to work, ahhh yes beautiful Norway is becoming an ever distant memory.

Palm Sunday

 

Palm Sunday dawned slightly cloudy but no rain, soooooo, I was up and out, to go up to the top of Mt Floyen, just for the view, which is still an amazing memory from 21 years ago. I actually went up after 7pm on that occasion and saw a stunning sunset, but this time I was up there very early morning.

Oh wow, my memory did me proud, it was still so stunning, the natural harbours of the city, the mountains that surround the city and  just all of Mt Floyen.

I was very brave coming back on the funicular as this seat at the front of the train was not really the best place for someone with a crippling fear of heights.

Back down to earth and a wonderful wander through the public park, and back to the harbour area.

I decided to be a real tourist and jumped onto the 'hop on hop off 'bus, proper tourist! It was actually a great tour with so much information about the city, I did this kind of tour in Reykjavik and would always recommend it. It cost £35.

I even found my perfect house.

Back to the harbour and lunch, I chose Olivia, an Italian restaurant, the service and the food were exception, the local 'spuggies' great entertainment eating anything dropped, an upper class type of bird, they ate my scraps of olives!

I had wanted to go to the archeological museum, but due to being out all day on a tour on Saturday and it being Palm Sunday it wasn't open, well that a perfect reason to come back.

I headed back to the hotel and just as I got in the heavens opened, thanks to Freyr, Norse God of  fertility , prosperity, peace , good harvest and more importantly, fair weather , for letting me see so much in the dry.

I took a nap!

And it was still raining when I woke up.

I 'anoraked' up and set off for a walk around, I ended up past the Magic Ice bar, and headed up to the aquarium, doing a loop back to the hotel, taking in the amazing architecture.

I had an early evening tipple in the hotel bar and spoke to some lovely Swedes and Germans. sharing things we had done, seen and places we had eaten.

I then headed back to my room to reset my suitcase and prepare for my last day.

out and about

 

Well it was a very early start and I was off to get the coach to Flam.

Bergen at 6.45am is a wonderfully peaceful place.  

We all got onto coaches and started the 2.5 hour journey to Flam.

The scenery made up for the length of journey and the sun was shining which was an added bonus.

Arriving at Flam we had a 25 min break for drinks and toilets. then on to the train.

The journey to Myrdal started and the ascent began, interesting to note that our journey would take an hour with a 5 minute stop, before the railway it was over 4.5 hours in a horse and carriage!

breathtaking. especially as we reached the point where the train takes a curved trail around the mountain, s huge feat of engineering.

we stopped off to see Kjosfossen, a stunning waterfall, except in April when most of the snow has not yet started to melt to feed it.

Having seen pictures of it in full flow it is amazing, however today it was not to be.

We arrived in Myrdal which was covered in snow and looked beautiful

And after a 10 minute stop, we headed back down to Flam and lunch.

How stunning Flam looked as we arrived back.

I headed to the Flam Museum which covered the  preparations and building of the railway, so much of the  excavations for tunnels were done by hand! 

I was interested to find out more about this  but didn't have time!

Then we were boarding the electric boat for a fabulous Fjord tour.

I decided that it was the right time for ( and they sold) Champagne.

It was amazing, and so peaceful, 

The beauty of Norway condensed into 2 hours.

Seeing so much natural beauty is breathtaking and although I have been through Norwegian  fjords before it was just wonderful.

A lot of tired travelers headed back to coaches and 2.5 hours back to Bergen, it turned into a 13 hour day which was unforgettable, but for me physically draining.

It was worth every minute though.

And today...............

well its a case of head out and see what happens